Overcoming Insecurities: How To Make it, On Not Enough (Judges 7:2-8)

lord we've turned our backs on you far too many times the cost of sins too much too bad but still you paid the fine so i just don't i'm so thankful for this intercession with you i feel like i've entered into heaven when i'm in your presence when i'm in your presence and lord please bless this body of your saints with your family i pray for love and abundant peace for all my enemies and i know that satan's in there somewhere sitting in the crowd so hear my bread hear my battle cry and i'm so thankful for this intercession with you i feel like i've been turned to heaven faith consumed by your amazing grace to worship you i live to worship you i live i live to worship you to worship you yes to worship you i live to worship you i live i live to worship you to worship you lord to worship you i live to worship you i live i live to worship you to worship yes to worship you to worship you i live to worship you i live i live to worship you to worship you yes lord to worship you i live to worship you i live i live to worship you to worship you oh to worship you to worship you i live to worship you i hereby live to worship you to worship you lord yes to worship you island to worship you i live i live to worship you to worship you good morning renaissance live we are so glad that we've been blessed to be in this place yet once again to come and worship god in spirit and in truth we have so much to be thankful for as we fully realize that this thanksgiving has passed and the nation in which we live celebrated but we fully realize as christians that thanksgiving is every day and we want to thank god for all the blessings he so richly bestowed upon us we want to continue to pray for this church the renaissance church and its membership will continue to pray for the leadership of this church i want to continue to pray especially for the man of god dr orphan j hayward that you might continue to bless him he might be blessed in a special way lord in a special way to lead god and direct us spiritually we pray for the message that will come this morning we pray father something will be said that we'll prick our hearts we might be better servants in the future than we've been in times past we want to continue to remember all those that are sick and shut in amongst our congregation and continue to keep them in in prayer let us pray come merciful father in heaven we're truly thankful for the opportunity we have to be in this place this morning to worship you in spirit and in truth we thank you for this opportunity that we've been blessed with to see yet another day we pray father for the things that will take place this morning in our worship we pray that everything that we do will be pleasing and acceptable in your sight we pray for your man servant dr orpheus j hey with you crown is here with wisdom and knowledge to remember the things that he studied and then we the hearers might be doers of your word that we might live out our true confession to be the children of god we thank you so much for all that you've done father be with us continue to watch over his blessings in a special way for all these prayers we do ask in the mighty name of jesus the one who is willing to die that we might live amen is built on nothing nothing jesus the sweetest hope my hope is oh the solids one more time on christ on is amen hallelujah hallelujah salvation and glory honor and power unto the lord our god will for the lord our god is mighty and yes the lord our god is omnipotent our god he is the one hallelujah hallelujah yes salvation and glory honor and power unto the lord wonder hallelujah hallelujah salvation and glory honor and power unto the lord he is he is he is is hallelujah he is the one he is he is he is the wonderful he is the one he is he is i have been revived i have been revived for the first time in my life i am alive when i looked into jesus i found me a friend and i'll never go back to the whole life ever again i found me a friend and jesus i am alive when i looked into jesus i found me a friend and i'll never go back to the old life ever again come on for the first time in my life i am alive when i looked into jesus i found me afraid and i'll never go back to the old life ever again sing it again sing it been your again for the first time in my life i am alive when i looked into jesus i found me afraid and i'll never go back to the old life ever again and i one more time i've been revived i've been revived in my life i am and and i'll never go back to the old line one more time and i'll never go back to the whole life ever again this is our time of communion and as we prepare our hearts and minds to take of the lord's body and to shed blood i want you to have victory on your mind because it was truly a victory despite the pain despite the blood despite the whales the screaming to agony it all declared victory on the cross for you and for me and jesus even called the victory when he was with his disciples and he told them as he was still physically alive take eat this is my body which is broken for you and as he continued he used the word is to declare victory so we victoriously take of this time of the lord's supper together because it is through jesus christ and his death on the cross that we all obtained that glorious victory let us pray father god in heaven we just thank you so much for the incredible love and for the victory that was displayed on the cross and father we don't take it lightly that you grant us this opportunity as your body to partake of your son's broken body and shed blood every lord's day in remembrance of the victory we thank you for putting all of our sins on the cross and giving us this opportunity this full access to salvation and we thank you that you loved us so much that you saw fit to see your plan all the way to its fulfillment in jesus name we pray amen my precious savior suffer pain and that i might see him oh that i might leave is i my we are always thankful to god for the opportunity to give back to him what he has allowed us to what he has allowed us to have within our possession and we're grateful each and every time we can manifest the great command where the bible says it is more blessed to give than to receive we recognize that in the book of proverbs in the chapter is three and in verse number five it says trust in the lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight do not be wise in your own eyes fear the lord and turn away from evil it will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones honor the lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine and so it is from the book of proverbs we learn that we are to engage and giving god the first fruits of all that we have principally we learn from this passage that we are to honor god in our wealth or in our substance we would ask you as the new testament church as the church at renaissance that we would recognize the importance of giving as we prosper as god has prospered us it is interesting that when we speak about giving many times when we quote first corinthians 16 we say as we have prospered but the proper understanding of that passage and reading of that text is we give as god has prospered us and so it is we must recognize that we are the passive recipients of all that god would have us to own and we ought to recognize that if god prospered us then we ought to be willing to give back to god so i'm asking every member of the renaissance church even right now to make sure that you uh think thoroughly through how god has blessed you that you might invest back into the kingdom of god for even in this covet 19 season god has managed to bless us and may we always keep his kingdom uh healthy and may we keep the kingdom vested with our finances that the kingdom agenda can continue to be fulfilled so even right now i would ask you to engage in the offering of the lord well i love to praise him sing i praise you i love to praise to praise his holy day well i love to praise praise him sing well i love to praise praise god you know and i'm singing hallelujah and i'm singing hallelujah for his myrrh hallelujah and i'm singing hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah he's my rock and a heap my rock no no hallelujah oh i love to praise his name and i'm singing hallelujah hallelujah oh i love you and i'm singing hallelujah hallelujah oh i love to pray to pray to you praise his holy days for he's my rocker here by yes lord in the middle of my jewels and i'm singing hallelujah hallelujah hey yes father god in heaven as we continue to look at all of your creation and all that you provide us we are just so thankful that you continue to allow us to have what we have and to give what we give we're honored father to have the opportunity to give back to your kingdom and we pray that as we cheerfully receive all the blessings that you give us that we cheerfully give back as well we just thank you father for what you already have planned over the horizon and right now for what has been collected and we pray as always father that this collection will be utilized so that more can come closer to you and that in the end we'll all be granted that opportunity to receive you in glory in jesus name we pray amen well amen and good morning to everybody who is with us today we are so honored and we're so pleased that you gathered with us in your living rooms and in your kitchens and in your dens and in your beds to receive this worship service so as i think about welcoming you this morning i wanted to share with you about my approach to my favorite football team i've taken a biblical approach to the falcons here's what i do i record the games if the falcons lose i delete it and if they win i watch the game and i want you to think about the experience of watching fumbles fourth downs missed field goals but knowing the entire time that a victory is going to happen it is the most amazing feeling in the world and as i think about it it is so gratifying to record what i know is a victory well i want to remind you this morning that god recorded the victory it is in his word we hear the recording of the victory every time we sing a song we hear the recording of the victory every time we hear a preached sermon we hear the recording of that victory every single time we gather for worship so despite your fumbles and despite your sex and despite your mistakes it ought to feel good to you to gather every single lord's day and be a witness to a recorded victory so i along with my falcons and everybody else in this whole world we celebrate the victory that has already been recorded in his word and that we continue to live every single day so i want you to walk victoriously i want you to continue to join and sing with us victoriously and let's get ready for this victorious message let me preach to you in just a minute but as you get your mind and your heart prepared for that word just know the victory has already been claimed so we have one more victorious song we're going to sing we're going to sing it with all of our hearts and all of our souls we want you to join in with us as if you have claimed and won the victory i love you forever i love you forever i love you i love forever i love forever i forever you forever we bring we bring glory to god oh glory to god we bring glory to god we pray glory to god forever we bring we bring we bring glory to god glory to god glory to god forever in the good times somebody ought to glorify him even right now glory glory glory glory glory glory glory to god oh i love you forever certainly on this glorious morning we want to thank god for another day of life and for the pleasure to worship him for we realize that god has been better to us than we have ever dared to be to ourselves a moment to appreciate and to embrace the grace of almighty god and that he has allowed us yet another opportunity to express our love and adoration to him god is a good god and he is absolutely worthy to be praised on the basis of his character on the basis of who he is his identity god is worthy of our worship jesus as he spoke to the woman at the well in the city of samaria he says god is spirit and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth for he seeketh such to worship him i don't know about you but the idea of worship comes from the old english phraseology worth ship and when we think about how good god is and when we begin to survey the depths of his identity we are immediately struck with the idea that god has worth and because of the worth of god we give god worship because he is inherently worthy for holy and reverend is his name and to that end we are certainly grateful even right now to have this moment if you are logged in presently on our virtual world we would ask you to take a moment to appreciate the goodness and the mercy of almighty god he did not have to allow you to wake up this morning he did not have to allow you to have this moment to log in so that you could receive a word from the lord he didn't have to allow you the privilege of inhaling and exhaling you ought to be thankful that you are seeing a day that you have not seen before i would like you before we get started to just acknowledge all those who may be visiting with us virtually we want you to know you are our honored guest we are thankful to god that you have stopped by our virtual world that you might experience the renaissance worship we don't take lightly that you have made this your pit stop this morning and we're grateful that you have taken the opportunity to share in this glorious moment whereby we have come to give god all the honor and all the glory we want to also appreciate all those of the renaissance membership that have been so gracious and so faithful in being great investors and contributor to the kingdom of god that you have you have allowed yourself to be fully committed to the work and the agenda of the kingdom and we thank god for your offering and we want to encourage those who are part of the renaissance world to continue to invest strongly in the kingdom as we are planning to do a great many things that are related to our virtual experience um we need you to be continuously uh in the posture and in the position to give to the kingdom of god so that we can take our ministry to the next level one of the things that we are working on currently is we're trying to build out the renaissance online campus and is going to take finances to do that to build out the robust campus that we're trying to accomplish it's our prayer that you will continue to invest that we can build out our virtual world in such a way where everyone can become connected to the renaissance experience and we want you to remain again uh continuing to do what you've been doing and that's investing in the kingdom of god because we have so many plans to take our ministry to the next level and we know that it will take finances to do that so we want you to be waiting for the coming of the renaissance online campus and the outlay of that and we're going to give you more information as we get closer so we want you to know that we are continuously thinking through how to manage the new norms um as we exist in the covet 19 season it has been suggested by several that this virus is not going to dissipate it's not going to leave us this is something we'll have to live with and while we are expecting the coming of vaccines we do know there are certain new norms that we have to accept and we're trying to work through that and make sure that our congregation is absolutely prepared for the advent of any other crisis and so i'm grateful for the covet 19 crisis because it caused us to take an introspective look at things that need to be available to our membership as we take care of the new testament church and minister the gospel to the world i want to invite your attention to the book of judges and i'm going to ask you to meet me in chapter seven judges the seventh chapter and i'm going to ask you to meet me in verse number two and then i'm going to back up and read another hebraic pericopy in chapter six that we can set the context and also place a marker on what it is i'd like to emphasize on this morning judges chapter 7 i'm going to begin my reading in verse 2 and then i'm going to culminate probably around somewhere uh around verse 8. the lord said to gideon the people who are with you are too many for me to give midian into their hands for israel would become boastful saying my own power has delivered me now therefore come proclaim in the hearing of the people saying whoever is afraid and trembling let him return and depart from mount gilead so 22 000 people returned but ten thousand remained then the lord said to gideon the people are still too many bring them down to the water and i will test them them for you there therefore it shall be that he of whom i say to you this one shall go with you he shall go with you but everyone whom i say to you this one shall not go with you he shall not go so we brought the people down to the water and the lord said to gideon you shall separate everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps as well as everyone who kneels to drink now the number of those who lapped putting their hand to their mouth was 300 men but all the rest of the people kneeled to drink water the lord said to gideon i will deliver you with the 300 men who lapped and will give the midianites into your hands so let all the other people go each man to his home so the 300 men took the people's provisions and their trumpets into their hands and gideon sent all the other men of israel each to his tent but retained the 300 men and the camp of midian was below him in the valley i want to now invite your attention to chapter six i want you to come up to chapter six and i'm going to begin my reading in about verse number four judges chapter six well i'll begin in verse six judges chapter six beginning in verse six so israel was brought very low because of midian and the sons of israel cried to the lord now it came about when the sons of israel cried to the lord on account of midian that the lord sent a prophet to the sons of israel and he said to them thus says the lord the god of israel it was i who bought you up from egypt and bought you out from the house of slavery i delivered you from the hands of the egyptian and from the hands of all your oppressors and dispossessed them before you and gave them or gave you their land and i said to you i am the lord your god you shall not fear the gods of the amorites in whose land you live but you have not obeyed me then the angel of the lord came and sat under the oak that was in ophra which belonged to joash the abazarite as his son gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the midianites the angels of the lord appeared to him and said to him the lord is with you o valiant warrior then gideon said to him oh my lord if the lord is with us why then has all this happened to us and where are all his miracles which our fathers told us about saying did not the lord bring us up from egypt but now the lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of midian the lord looked at him and said go in this your strength and deliver israel from the hand of midian have i not sent you he said to him o lord how shall i deliver israel behold my family is the least in manassa and i am the youngest in my father's house but the lord said to him surely i will be with you and you shall defeat midian as one man so gideon said to him if now i have found favor in your sight then show me a sign that it is you who speaks with me i want to lift for a subject for your hearing how to survive with not enough how to survive or how to make it or not enough i want to give a clear indication as we study the text and as we begin to move through the passage i want you to have within the fabric of your mind the notion of making it or not enough surviving on not enough and as we walk through the corridors of this text and we begin to look at that subject matter i want to appreciatively talk about the biblical text from the perspective that i am thankful to god that he reveals the frailty of some of our greatest heroes in the bible that the bible does not try to hide from us god does not try to camouflage the frailty and the failures of some of the greatest heroes of the hebrew text while if we were the authors of a book and perhaps if we was writing the historical narrative that perhaps we would only want to highlight some of the greatest aspects of the biblical heroes that perhaps we would want to hide or camouflage or make sure that we cover up the aspects of our greatest heroes that we don't want to be disclosed to the reader yet god does the opposite god takes the very ones that we highly esteem and he demonstrates within the text that even those that we lift highly and we elevate within the context of our mind he discloses to us their frailty their failures their mistakes their fears uh all of the aspects of their humanity that that they share with people like you and me so that the bible will be clear that everyone that i use i don't want to give you the impression that somehow someway they're perfect the imperfections of the individuals in the bible is absolutely glaring and it makes it more impressive that god often chooses the very ones that are seemingly the most imperfect the ones that are seemingly the weakest the ones that don't seem to be worthy god will take and he will use for his glory and for his honor it brings me great joy to know that because even within the fabric and context of my own ministry and any leader any preacher any elder or deacon could testify to the fact that god calls us to a high calling in spite of the fact that we are woefully imperfect it gives me some kind of joy that god can use a person like me or that he can use a person like you that in spite of all of our mistakes in all of the areas of our lives that are vulnerable to being failures in all of the aspects of our lives in which we fall short of the glory of god god continuously demonstrates that his grace is so sufficient that he can use those vessels that seem dishonorable to the human eye i'm thankful to god for that because while we love to uplift people to the highest place and we love to give the impressions that those who stand before us are perfect god will have you to know that every single person is within the fabric and the tapestry of the bible at the absence of jesus stands imperfect that each person that was a king or every prophet or every preacher you will read aspects of their lives that are indicative of individuals that struggled in some area of their personal development and so when we read the text we become impressed with the idea that god does not place a cover over the mistakes of man but he actually uncovers the mistakes of man so that we can see that his grace is most powerful and imperfect people and so it is that when we begin to interface with the text i want you to see that there are some very real struggles that you have that i have that as god wants to use us he wants us to be clear of the inadequacy of our own uh of our own fiber the inadequacy of my own togetherness that even though i may put forth the perfect portrait in front of people who see me god wants me to understand that i need to embrace my inadequacy so his grace can be shown to be sufficient well with that being the case i want to invite your attention to judges the seventh chapter and i want you to appreciate one of the interesting persons of the old testament by the name of gideon i want to help to challenge you on today to think about the reality that all of us share the experience of feeling inadequate and inadequacy will often give birth to a thing called insecurity and i want to talk to you about carrying the weight of insecurity where your lack of confidence will so stifle you that you will fail to receive the blessings that god has in store because you lack the confidence to take hold of what god has in the fabric of your destiny i want to talk to you about that because oftentimes the person that will step in the way of you reaching your highest potential is you because you're struggling with things on the inside of you that other people don't know about or you don't want to disclose to everybody but all of us walk down a road where sometimes we run into the internal stumbling block of a thing called insecurity and security by definition what i mean by that is i mean a lack of confidence so when i speak about what is insecurity as we look at sister allen slide two if you ask me the question what is insecurity insecurity is a lack of confidence where you begin to have a sense of extreme doubt within the fabric of your own being lack of confidence to be insecure is a person that feels a level of inadequacy that has robbed them of the ability of being confident and this is something that happens in the greatest of individuals and i want you to realize that in spite of your feeling of moments of inadequacy and moments of insecurity and feeling a lack of confidence god still can use you if you learn how to embrace your inadequacy but at the same time embrace his sufficiency the sufficiency of god is what allows me to succeed in the midst of my inadequacy let me help you with this i am not here to give you the impression you don't have inadequacy i i am not here to suggest to you that you don't have moments of weakness that i'm not here to suggest to you that you will not have moments of failure i am not here to suggest to you or to build you up in a way that gives you the impression or the perspective that somehow someway your inadequacies are a figment of your imagination i am actually i'm actually here to do the opposite i want to show you that with your inadequacy god is sufficient and you have to learn how to embrace your inadequacy and recognize that inadequacy does not have to become the robber that steals your destiny you can move forward in great success in spite of my lack what i want you to see is my confidence is never designed to be in me but my confidence is in the god who sustains me and the biblical paradigm that i want you to see is that with your inadequacy with your managed insecurity you can still find great success with god but i want to make sure that you're clear about the malignancy of insecurity if it's unmanaged insecurity a lack of confidence in self is it is an indication that you are too focused on your inadequacy and what i want you to recognize is inadequacy giving birth to insecurity if unmanaged will stifle you from reaching your highest potential consider this that as we look at this i want you to consider three reasons people struggle with insecurity and i want you to see that as a child of god as god has destiny inside of you and god wants you to reach your highest potential you will often miss what god has in store if you don't know how to face the reality of insecurity and i'm going to show you that gideon within the context of the book of judges suffered from at least two aspects of insecurity that could have robbed them then i want to show you that god in spite of his insecurity wanted gideon to find sufficiency in god listen to what i'm saying your insecurity may never be dissipated but your insecurity can be managed if you learn how to take your eyes off of your inadequacy and put your trust in god's sufficiency to realize that with all of the areas to which i might come up short god has a way of using imperfect vessels now that being the case i want you to learn how to walk in a city in a place where you are not crippled by insecurity because you keep looking at your inadequacy all right now let me help you with this insecurity and i want to look at uh look at slide number three with me sister allen let me see if we can put this up so folk and see what we're trying to deal with here the first aspect of insecurity that i want you to consider that as we walk down the road of this is insecurity can often be based on recent failure or rejection now what that simply means is that i can suffer from insecurity a lack of confidence because i am trapped or stuck in the inability to get past a failure that i just experienced in other words failure has a way of making you feel like there's no reason for me to move forward it after it can paralyze you failure has a way of giving you the impression that you have lost self-worth and so when i start dealing with failure and i start dealing with the things that i missed or or aspects of my past where i have failed if i am not careful i can become arrested by my failure and be unable to move forward and then it gives birth to me looking excuse me or rather it puts in my mind an inadequacy that gives birth to insecurity now my inadequacy is i recognize an area in my life where i lack my failure has put a magnifying glass on an area in which i lack and now i am lacking confidence because i have an inadequacy that has arrested my attention and as a result i am insecure because of some failure i experienced what's interesting is that we don't need to run from failures but in the words of john c maxwell we need to learn how to fail forward that is not so much about will i fail is what you do with the failure so that the failure does not become a moment where you it cripples you but failure becomes a moment where is a stepping stone towards god's destiny of success that he has for your life so what i want you to get into the into the understanding before we dive into the text you know i'm a text preacher i want you to get this in your spirit when we start talking about insecurity the first aspect of it is insecurities that are the results of my past failure um i did it um i messed up i i fell i i i didn't do well i missed the mark i missed the target whatever it is in your life and you are a person that now suffers from a lack of confidence because you can't look past the mistake that you made and because of the mistake looming over your head is robbed you of a confidence and you're crippled and you're stagnated you are suffocated you are stuck in a failure is there anybody that can talk to me on virtual online and say i know what it is to fail and to lack confidence as a result where i am stuck in a place where i can't see past the mistake that i made and let me tell you if you're not careful there are there are people who love to keep your failure in front of you that there are people who would love for you to drown in your failure there are some people that uh while you're trying to get past your past there are some folk who try to make your past your present and they don't want to see you get past your failure there are people who will magnify your mistake because the magnification of your mistake masks their insecurity and there are some people as long as your failure is on the magnifying glass it allows them to hide under the darkness and not look at the reality of their own inadequacy so we need to be careful that you have to manage how you view failure oh god help me you have to manage how you see failure i'm going to show you the text in a minute that one of the areas in which gideon and the people of god suffered from an insecurity particularly in the mind of gideon is that there is a failure that is the reason why they are in the experience that they're in i'll be there in a moment then then there's a second type of insecurity let's put that back up sister allen there's a second type of insecurity it is it is the insecurity that is the result of social anxiety there is a lack of confidence because of social anxiety now what i mean by that is your perceived social status in life can cause you to have a lack of confidence in yourself because you are consistently in a mindset of comparing yourself to other people and it robs you of confidence we're living in a culture right now i call it the culture of comparison it's a culture of comparison because everything is about people making a thing look good and if you're not careful and you log into social media and you log into facebook or instagram everybody's making life look good and there's a way in which you start to look at everybody else and think somehow that they have a perfect portrait of life while you're sitting there going through your own struggle and while you're dealing with your own struggle you are looking at everybody else's perceived social status and as you look at their social status somehow it makes you feel as if you are inadequate as if you are not accepted as if you are failing as if you've missed the mark and your social anxiety in this world we live in is a result of an unhealthy comparison of you looking at somebody else and the more you look at somebody else and their portrait looks pretty you start to think that you are the only one going through life you are the only one struggling let me tell you upfront that anybody can make it look good on facebook and on instagram but i want to tell you when you log off of facebook and instagram everybody's going through life but we try to live to impress everybody else around us and we're often not real with the reality of how we feel and what we're dealing with and oh my god if you are not careful you will suffer from a lack of confidence because of who you keep looking at praise god you messing around stalking folks facebook page looking at everybody's instagram and wishing that you were them not even realizing the reality of what their experience you have messed around and you have been convoluted by a picture praise the mighty name of jesus i found it interesting that many people many preachers have lived vicariously through their perceived renaissance success under the impression that somehow someway we don't have struggles here at this church that sometimes when you see an auditorium full of people back before covet 19 hit and you see an auditorium of 1200 or 1300 people you come up with the impression that my god that church got it together don't you think for one minute that 1300 african-americans in one place means that we don't have no struggles don't let the picture fool you stop looking at it and i'm talking to preachers right now stop looking at everybody else's ministry and somehow thinking that your ministry is inadequate based on looking at some event that took place on a certain date at a certain time and you're judging the whole aspect of that ministry based on one 30-second clip that they put on facebook every ministry struggles every preacher struggles and regardless we have to learn how to get over the social anxiety that results from a lack of confidence oh god i want to stay on this for a little while now because it's it is such a real reality that we have learned it's a bad learn it's it's a learned behavior of unconscious comparison we love to do it so we look at somebody smiling on facebook we see a sister smiling and she's posing it looked like she just got finished with a photo shoot not realizing just a few days ago she got divorced y'all not gonna help me along in here and and you're looking at a portrait thinking that her life is perfect but it's far from perfect and you're and she's dealing with a struggle but you judging her joy by the portrait you say i so wish i had her life no you may not wish you had her life or you're looking at the portrait of a of a father posing with his two children and he says how much he loves his kids and you're like boy i wish my family was just like that but you didn't realize they take that portrait once a year because he never gets to see his kids and he's in a situation where he's trying to battle with trying to see his children and you looked at one portrait and you want to be him social anxiety i lack confidence because of my unhealthy comparison with other people and i've judged my worth based on what i see oh god social anxiety i'm trying to get off of it social anxiety help me brother so social anxiety is so real that there are people that do everything they do in order to fit into a clique or a group you'll dress a certain way and act a certain way and talk a certain way and don't realize you can never reach your true potential of what god put inside of you because you're so busy trying to fit into something god never designed you to fit into and because of social anxiety you're constantly trying to mold yourself into an image so that people will like you and accept you do you know how dangerous it is to live for acceptance it will create a social anxiety in you that is unreal you will lack confidence and i'm gonna tell you up front you will never get to a place of peace when you are consistently trying to please people that you're trying to fit in with because they will always in your mind hold the standard of who fits in what and where and at what point be careful about social anxiety that will create insecurity in your insecure you you lack confidence and in order to find confidence you try to fit in to something perhaps god has never caused you to fit in some of you have been so victimized by social anxiety you have grown up with the perspective of trying to live for the spotlight of what everybody sees and you've never been able to be yourself because you've always tried to fit an expectation in the mold that people put you in and as a result you suffer from lack of confidence and there's a third insecurity man i'm taking along with this bro there's a third insecurity and it's the insecurity of perfectionism people who have to be perfect preach to yourself brother hayward people who who need to have it all together people who need to feel like every tears cross and every eye is dotted and that somehow some way you you start living in this perspective of perfectionism that everything you touch or do you want it to be so grandiose so that when people see it and behold it it has your fingerprint of perfectionism on it on it and you can't even sleep at night until the until the event comes up and you can't sleep at night unless that thing is absolutely the way you envision it to be and you struggle not with what other people's perceptions are only not only the pressure other folk put on you you struggle from the pressure that you place on yourself you are a perfectionist you have pushed yourself to a limit and as a result you can't even function in a peaceful state of mind because of the own self-inflicted pressure that you placed on yourself it is the insecurity of perfectionism because here's the thing you try to be perfect or cover your inadequacies with the perception of perfection because somehow some way it helps you to medicate your mind from struggling with inadequacy you try to cover it and camouflage it in perfectionism it is absolutely malignant and a dangerous kind of mentality now with that said and with that understanding i want to invite you to the book of judges to see that gideon struggled with two of these and all of us i don't care who you are i don't care how great you think you are you might be called by god you may be a gifted christian you can struggle with insecurity and inadequacy and you got to know how to handle that by finding sufficiency in god and let me tell you i serve a god that wants you in a posture of recognizing he can bring you to a place of great success or not enough oh god he is a god that wants to teach you his power in the not enough theology in other words god wants you to realize how insufficient you are so you can see how sufficient he is and here's how he does it look at judges seven come with me to the text in judges chapter seven i want to get to well i'm gonna start with chapter six and walk you through the story those who may not be familiar with the book of judges the book of judges finds its historical context between the death of joshua and the establishment of the monarch in israel through the establishment of the first king saul so when we look at the book of judges it stems a period of time between the death of joshua and the establishment of the monarch where israel ordains its first king and you know the first king is saul now when you look at the book of judges there is a generation that has occupied the land of canaan yet there is rising up another generation that does not know god they have not seen what the previous generation has experienced and they begin to interface and intermingle with idolatry and foreign women that are within the land of canaan as a result god says i will not drive out the inhabitants i'm gonna leave them where they are so i can discipline you for your disobedience now i wish i had time to to play with that a little bit except to say they occupy the land of canaan but god refuses to drive out the inhabitants he leaves the inhabitants present as a means of disciplining israel for their disobedience i have learned that i serve a god that will leave certain things in your life to discipline you because you are not obedient to what he said god will leave thorns in your life that are designed to bring you back to your divine senses to understand the sufficiency of god israel was blessed they were born out of egyptian bondage they were brought into the land of canaan and as they arrive in the land of canaan there are inhabitants there the jebusites the canaanites and all of these different heights are present in the land foreign nations are present and god would have driven them out but god said waiter i can't drive them out because if i do that then i will not discipline israel for his disobedience they will never learn to depend on me unless i leave something in their life that forces them to call on me i wish i had time to deal with that god will leave stuff in your life that will force you to call on him i mean he god will leave things in your life that will put you in a posture of prayer god will purposely leave difficult people and difficult things in the context of your life to help bring you to a place of humility because if god removed all of the difficulties out of your life you would think somehow in your arrogance that your disobedience was permissible but god has to help us sometime by leaving stuff in our lives that are designed to cause us to lose some sleep because god knows how to make you call on him when you get off the tracks and off the rails god will leave a jebusite in your life he'll leave a canine in your life to show you that there's no way for you to be successful without the presence of almighty god he knows how to discipline me and so the book of judges places us in what i call the cycle of sin what is happening in the book of judges is that through 12 judges really 13 if you count samuel israel will consistently sin go into servitude cry to god and get delivered by a judge right after they get delivered by drugs they will experience a period of peace and right after the period of peace guess what israel is going to do sin again go into servitude cry to god and god will raise up a deliverer and then after that deliverer delivers them again and brings them out of the difficulty they were in guess what israel is going to do they're going to sin again they're going to go into servitude then god is going to raise up a deliverer and he's going to free them from bondage and then after god does that they will go back into that cycle the book of judges is a cycle of israel's disobedience to god that every time god blesses them and brings them out they find themselves back in a sinful condition now before you start judging israel i could testify that sometimes our lives look like sin going into servitude crying out to god and then after we cry to god god brings us out and then at some point later we sin again go into a difficult circumstance cry out to god and then after we cry god will somehow bring us out and we start praising him again i wish i had two or three folk that can testify right now in the virtual world that sometimes i sin again and i go back into servitude god will bring me out and i praise her and somewhere between my praise and my difficult situation i sin again i go back into servitude i cry out to god and he delivers me over again can anybody testify that god has a way of allowing me to go through this cycle where through his mercy and his grace he will bring me out and deliver me knowing that i have the proclivity to go back into difficulty again our lives often looks like the book of judges now that being said the characterization of the book of judges if there was a passage and it said redundantly throughout the book of judges it says in those days there was no king and every man did what was right in his own eyes this is the characterization of that generation that existed between joshua and the establishment of the first monarch saul we find that israel is run and ruled by what god or what the text calls judges and these judges by definition were not just those who were judicial but they were those who functioned as deliverers now one of those judge's name is gideon gideon the son of joash was raised up by god because the midianites have come against the israelites but i want you to make sure you get this in your spirit i'm going to read judges chapter six verse one i want you to see it uh because it's going to place us right in in context of what i want you to see look at judges six beginning in verse one before i get to where we need to go it says then the sons of israel did what was evil in the sight of the lord this is redundantly stated this is the i believe um i believe gideon could be correctly chronologically identified as the fifth judge in the book of judges and this is something that is redundant he said of israel then the sons of israel did what was evil in the sight of the lord and the lord gave them into the hands of the midian seven years i wish i could just pause that it says god gave them into the hands of the midian's god let the enemy win god let his people lose because god has a way of having to sometimes humble you and the unfortunate reality is that god will often give your enemies a victory so that you have to remind yourself about who can bring you out god took out god the bible says god allowed them to be handed over to the midianites for seven years watch this the power of midian prevailed against israel do you know god can give your enemies power oh jesus god will mess around and give your enemies power only to prove to your insufficiency so that you can recognize the sufficiency of god and so here it is that the midianites are empowered by god and israel's place into servitude watch the texts the power of the midians prevailed against israel because of many and the sons of israel made for themselves the dens which were in the mountains in the caves and the strongholds for if for it was when israel had sown that the midianites would come up against the amalekites and the sons of the east and go against them so they would camp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as gaza and leave no sustenance in israel as well excuse me as well as no sheep ox or donkey for they would come up from their livestock and their tents and they would come in like locusts watch this please watch this they would come in like locust for number both they and their camels were innumerable i need you to keep that in your spirit the enemies or the midianites were described as innumerable keep that in your spirit now the bible says in verse six so israel was brought very low because of the midianites and the sons of israel it is cry god knows how to make you cry i promise i promise you god knows how to make you cry god knows how to bring you so low that he make you cry out to him god knows how to make you talk to him and here is the text where the bible says at this point after israel is now in this midianite captivity and their produce is being ransacked and they are being robbed of their wealth and their sustenance now the bible says they cried out to the lord as can anybody testify that there are times when god knows how to make you cry watch this on the basis of what you did to yourself praise god now watch this watch the text verse seven now it came about when the sons of israel cried to the lord on account of midian the lord sent a prophet to the sons of israel and he said to them thus save the lord the god of israel it was i who brought you up from egypt i brought you out from the house of slavery i delivered you from the hands of the egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors and dispose of them before you and gave you their land and i say to you i am the lord your god you shall not fear the gods of the amorites in whose land you live but you have not obeyed me can can i can i ask anybody to be honest for a moment and for just a moment in twinkling of time can you admit that your circumstance may be the result of your own choice and that everything is not the result of you being victimized because sometimes we love to play victim when we cry to god when actually was not about us being a victim but it's about us being the villain and sometimes in in reality when we start to recognize the power of god and the all-knowingness of god the omniscience of god the one thing you can't do is be dishonest with god praise the mighty name of jesus and so here it is israel is crying to god and god said if you want to know what the problem is you want to know why you're not winning you want to know why you got where you are you want to you want to be honest with me about where you are and what is your struggle and what is the wilderness you can't seem to find yourself you want to know why you are in captivity to the proverbial midianites you should have never lost that battle you should have never lost this war you should never be in captivity to them but if you want to know why you're there god said i'm the god that brought you out of egypt you just didn't obey me i watched the text look at verse 11. i'm trying to get to this text then the angel of the lord came and sat under the oak that was in ophra which belonged to joash the abazarite as his son gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress in order to save it from the midianites the angel of the lord appeared to him and said to him the lord is with you o valiant warrior watch this then gideon said to him oh my lord if the lord is with us why then has all this happened to us and where are all the miracles which our fathers told us about saying did not the lord bring us up from egypt but now the lord has abandoned us and given us into the hands of the midianite watch this type 2 insecurity excuse me type one type one insecurity lack of confidence because of failure or rejection what is gideon feeling in this text he is feeling rejected by god and the rejection of god has given him a lack of confidence watching so much so god came to me said get in oh valiant warrior the angel was coming to give him some good news called him a warrior and gideon's response was god can't be with us can't be because if god was with us we wouldn't be in the predicament we're in right now we are rejected and abandoned but where are the miracles where is the god that split the red sea where is the god that was able to ring down from heaven bread where is that god he ain't here with us here is the angel saying the lord is with you o valiant warrior get in god is with you can't be what's wrong gideon i lack any confidence in what god is saying i am based on my feeling of abandonment from god he has rejected us and so i cannot accept the notion that god is with this violent warrior because my situation doesn't look like what god is calling me god is calling me after a term that suggests victory that suggests one who will be an overcomer but my situation does not look like what god is calling me have you ever felt like your life don't look like you a child of god have you ever felt like that the bible's telling you you're blessed with all spiritual blessings have you ever been in a predicament where you don't feel as blessed as what the bible's saying have you ever lacked so much confidence that you don't feel like the child of god that the bible is describing you to be can you testify and i don't i don't always feel like what god calls me because my situation doesn't look like how god is describing me and i'm suffering from the insecurity lack of confidence on the basis of the fact that god type one has rejected me rejection oh jesus rejection from god or from anyone can have such a wound in a person's life that it disconnects them from any positive description of who they are i wish people would be honest about rejection one nothing cute when that girl in seventh grade rejected me one nothing cute about that man that hurt praise god i mean it's you know would you go to the dance with me no i'm already going with danny what you mean your roommate i'm sorry i didn't i didn't i didn't know i you go home and your head's down and praise god now now wow this is a funny story if we tell the truth some of your early past rejections still play out in your present behavior so some some of the very rejections you've experienced in your life actually is the definitional reason why you behave the way you do sometimes you over compensate for yesterday's hurts and your yesterday's rejections have formed the thinking in your mind and because you fear rejection you don't let folk get but so close because you don't fear the person you fear the rejection they might give you you lack confidence you are insecure and now it plays out in how i deal in a relationship a friendship i don't let a friend get but so close because at some point you might reject me and i don't want to feel what i felt when i was in seventh grade i don't like that feeling and so gideon feels rejection have you ever felt the depression of being rejected or trying to fit into a circle that won't let you in and you feel it you feel it you you can feel the coldness of people who don't want to accept you and you and you have to go home with it and it hurts or praise the mighty name of jesus you go you work in an environment with other people that are credentialed as you are but for some reason they isolate you and make you feel like you are not uh part of the circle or the click and you go to work and you're isolated you can feel that they don't want to accept you and that you struggle with it because it reminds you of all the rejection you felt in your past and if you're not careful you'll start wanting to acquiesce to them and you'll change and shift and try to to mold yourself to fit in because you don't like the feeling of rejection praise the mighty name of jesus somebody brought up in the african-american social injustice conversation there was a uh a test that we took to talk about our mindset when we go into a caucasian environment or go into an environment with another dominant culture and the question that was asked to me was dr hayward when you come to your workplace how much of you do you leave in the car and i said oh my god how much of you do you leave in the car because you're trying to fit in to the dominant culture because at the end of the day many african-americans work in environments where you don't want to feel rejection and so you leave some of your blackness in the car because you fear what they may do if too much of you shines through how much of you do you leave in the car but you could ask that question almost anywhere how much of you do you leave in a car when you come to church because you don't want church folk to judge you for who you are and so at church you are not even yourself because you're fearful of the judgmental environment and context of what it is to be religious religious people have a way of trying to make you fit in you feel like you got to dress a certain way because you don't want to be offensive and people are so judgmental they don't even know what you got in your closet they don't know if you can afford anything beyond what you have but you find a way to try to fit in because you're fearful you feel like you got to suspend your personality because you're fearful and we talked about the whole personality thing that we're all different and we all have to tolerate each other but isn't it interesting that even in the context of church sometimes you feel like you got to leave some of you in the car work i gotta leave some of me in the car cause i feel rejection oh god now watch watch watch this watch this gideon is struggling because of rejection please let me finish this i gotta finish this so that you you get this in your spirit i'm trying to hurry up watch this the angels of the lord verse 12 appeared to him and said the lord is with your violent warrior then gideon said to him oh my lord if the lord is with us why then has all this happened to us and where are all his miracles which our fathers did he feels the abandonment and he feels rejection and he's trying to deal with it god you're calling me something and my circumstance don't feel like what you're calling me i'm feeling a level of abandonment and i'm struggling with insecurity and a lack of confidence oh my god i meant to say that praise just came to my head you it it's amazing how many places you can feel like you're not yourself do you know you can live in a home and be in a family and feel like you can't be yourself oh jesus i i always had two or three real people that you find more acceptance outside your house than from folk that live in your house and if you're not careful you deal with an abandonment concept even in the fabric and context of family work family church we all feel like we got to fit in we all feel like sometimes we leave a part of us somewhere because i am afraid to be all of me because if i'm all of me you may can't handle all of me or there's aspects of me i gotta hide from you because i feel like you are not open enough to accept the me that i am and so i leave some of me on the outside and because you are not willing to embrace to me that i am i have learned to avoid rejection by not being all of who i am so gideon struggles with the abandonment he's feeling with god he feels rejected and that rejection makes him feel other than what god called him you can be a child of god and not feel like one you can be a child of god and not feel blessed i'm so tired of y'all folk lying about i'm too blessed to be stressed i wish you stopped saying that because there is no such thing as too blessed to be stressed now i know you don't like that and i'm probably messing with somebody's whole statement here better stop playing stop playing you can be stressed and blessed that's the power of christianity the power of christianity is my blessings ain't dependent on how i feel that i can be broke and blessed i can be stressed and blessed i can be behind on my bills and bless i i can go through mental struggle and still be i can be on medication for anxiety and be blessed what i'm trying to tell you is we got to be careful about our theology because our theology sometimes we try to sound good and it's bad theology i'm too blessed to be stressed what is true blessed to be stressed i mean who was more blessed than jesus and i know christ was stressed in the garden i know he was stressed based on the physical symptoms that was happening in his life absolutely stressed and blessed now i'll watch this so so gideon gideon gideon gideon is dealing with the reality of where he is all right watch this let me fast forward gideon is converted by god he asks god for a sign god gives him a sign he wants to know that god is with him and he goes and gets an offering when he brings offering back he uh he places the offering on a rock and the rock turns into fire and it consumes the offering and gideon realizes god is with him but gideon is so insecure one sign from god will not be enough have you ever wanted god to reaffirm what you already know is true and so he'll ask for another sign and another side he'll actually get a fleece put a fleece on the ground and tell god now god give me one more sign if only the fleece gets wet with dew and everything around it is dry god i'm going to believe you god does it but he said oh all right wait wait god one more sign now god make the fleece dry and make everything around it wet and god does it but every time god gives him a sign he needs another one because he's so stricken with lack of confidence now watch this the reason god can use him come here is because god will take your lack of confidence and use you because folk who may struggle with lack of confidence while that is not the thing that should saturate you god knows how to take your lack of confidence and show you his sufficiency so that when god gives you victory you won't take the credit so god will use your lack of confidence in yourself so that you can learn to put confidence in him so that if you trust in god when god gets the victory you won't take credit because you won't think it was you you will know it was god and god was the one in whom i trusted in order to gain this victory god will use your lack of count watch this don't let lack of confidence kill you redirect your lack of confidence and put it in god so that you can experience the sufficiency of god in spite of the inadequacy of self so it is not about me trying to find adequacy within me it is about me trying to realize that god is sufficient to use me in spite of me and then when god gives me victory i realize god gets all the praise and not me now watch this let me fast forward now so so gideon then gets ready god tells him i want you to send a message to the tribes i want you to talk to vanessa and i want you to talk uh to all of the four of the tribes i want you to speak to those tribes send out a word praise the mighty name of jesus and let him know that it's time to go to war with midian so he does that so gideon gets ready and he talks to the the tribes and he lets them know that it's time for us to go to war and as they get ready to go to war he gathers 32 000 soldiers listen to me carefully 32 000 soldiers he gathers and when he gathers the 32 000 soldiers in chapter 7 verse 1 watch this then jeruba bell which is gideon jerusalem is his name because he pulled down his father's altar of baal and the name means let baal defend himself so his name got changed because he tore down the idol baal but now that he called him jeruba bell who's still gideon all the people who are with them rose up early and camped beside the spring of herad and the camp of midian was on the north side of them by the hill of moray in the valley and the lord said to gideon the people who are with you there's too many hold up god you told me to go gather an army i spoke to the tribes i spoke and got them gathered and we got together and i've got thirty two thousand god said yeah that's too many that's that's too many wait a minute god you just get me to a place where i even want to do this i mean i'm just getting to a place where i got enough confidence to move forward yeah i understand that you got 32 000 here's what i need you to do we gotta cut that down that's too many all right watch the text the text says god said everybody who is afraid sent them home that's according to deuteronomy chapter 20 verse 8 god made that stipulation before they even get in canaan when you get to canaan and you start fighting anybody who's afraid sent them home well 22 000 went home i mean because god said what i don't want in deuteronomy 28 don't have nobody around soldiers that's scared because that will impact and affect the other soldiers set them home god i wish i had time to tell you be careful about who's around you when it's time to go to war when it's time to do battle and you gotta battle satan you better put some faith folk around you some folk that are not afraid that put their trust in god be careful who's in your circle because you need folk that can feed faith and not fear and so he says 22 000 what listen they had 32 000 20 that's way more than half 22 000 was too scared to fight they said i'll tell you what we look get in look we showed up but if you asking us how we feel about this listen you fight this on your own and then gideon said well god we got ten thousand all right we cut the number down did god have the audacity to say that's still too many oh help me jesus come here god god wait wait a minute hold tight god that's still too many yeah there's still too many verse four then the lord said to gideon the people are still too many he said i tell you what uh you know what gideon you ain't doing this right i'm gonna put him to the test take him down to the water and those that lap like a dog that can bring water to their mouth and they lap like a dog that that's who we gonna use those who get on their knees and they drink the water we're gonna send them home all right now let's see how many we got it left them what out of the ten thousand three hundred we now then i tell y'all earlier in the judges it said that the midian knights were innumerable to many of them jokers an innumerable amount of warriors innumerable amount of camels god said 300. because god doesn't want israel to take credit for a victory that belongs to him so god wants gideon to see the same gideon that realized he was not adequate the same gideon that lack confidence get in i don't want you to try to build confidence based on how many resources you build up i want you to gain your confidence by trusting me i don't want you to put confidence in how many soldiers you got i want you to put confidence in who is god and so here's what i need you to do go with 300 cause ain't no way on my green earth you could win a battle with 300 so if you get this victory you're gonna have to give me credit god i wish i had a church right now i wish i had some folk that that can testify that sometimes god took away your resources that god took away the stuff you trusted so that he could show you that the thing you trust wasn't trustworthy and god will mess around and cut back your resources and say now watch me give you victory that there's no way your strength could have got on your own god what what you doing doc i'm sending you to war part i love is this and i don't have time to go through the whole thing don't say gideon you still scared i'll tell you what i'm gonna do i'mma let you sneak up on the enemy and hear a conversation and after you hear the conversation then you will have confidence then you'll realize that you have the strength to do this gideon and his and his companion came up on some midianites that happened to have a dream and when they had the dream they said in the dream that they saw fire coming into the camp and they interpreted the dream to mean that gideon was going to win the fight gideon overheard the conversation come here while you losing sleep fearing your enemy your enemy knows your potential and i find it interesting that sometimes god will show you through an enemy that your enemies recognize your potential while you sitting there with lack of confidence listen realize that when god wants to give you victory god will give you a reputation you didn't even build god will make your enemies fearful of what you gonna do and you sitting there feeling inadequate god wants you right there because he wants you to realize your strength comes from me and not from your adequacy praise god i wish i could talk to that person right now that that is moving up in the world and you feeling the lack of confidence because you said i don't have the degrees other folk have i don't have the education i don't have the intellect that other folk have i struggle with with how i'm feeling man i feel like i don't have enough god will take not enough and god will show you with not enough he can sustain you and give you victory i serve a god who through jesus told everyone sit down and it was five thousand about not counting women and children jesus asks the disciples what are we gonna give him the heat and they found a boy with some lunch and all he had was a few fish and some loaves of bread jesus took not enough and fed over five thousand god jesus took not enough and he used not enough to feed five thousand don't you think if jesus could take two fish and five loaves of bread not enough in feed five thousand he can take you and bless masses god can take your inadequacy and make it enough for his purpose and i wanted you to get out of this whole soliloquy this entire synopsis is stop walking in insecurity and focusing on your inadequacy don't even look for confidence in you put your confidence in god and god will use not enough and take you and use you for his purpose praise the mighty name of jesus he'll take not enough and he'll make it enough stop trying to compare yourself to everybody be thankful for how god made you and be thankful for what god gave you and in spite of all god gave you you will realize you are still not enough and even when not enough god will give you victory over midian you don't have to be and i ain't got to look like you i ain't got to dress like you praise the mighty name of jesus if you if if you are praise god you you don't have to look like drive like live like nobody else be thankful for what god gave you stop comparing yourself to everybody because god is satisfied with not enough because he can use not enough because not enough will give him credit for all the victories that's received thank god for not enough i don't have to drive like that i don't have to look like that yeah my family's struggling but we still family praise god we may not look like the portrait on facebook but that's all right we're not worried about it i'm not comparing myself to you i don't have the education you have i don't have the degree that you have i didn't go to school like you did but god gave me talent and gifts that he can use and even with my not enough gifts god still uses me for his honor and for his glory i need you to recognize that in spite of what you feel are your inadequacies i serve a god that is able with all that you lack to use you because he knows how to use not enough how do you get along with not enough trust god trust god your life is like you did college in college i had a fridge i had a refrigerator and i had no money and that fridge they never had enough food in it i had no money and i got a few dollars a month from my parents and from the church that was supporting me at the time people but man i learned how to get along with this cereal called cream of wheat mama taught me how to make that bad boy because you you you don't take a lot you you put a little you can make a lot of cream of wheat and and i learned how to get along with not enough i i learned how to get a pack of kool-aid and make that bad boy up the sugar pack and make it last for for two weeks with a little bit of water and kool-aid and i would ignite it wasn't sweet enough cause i could only lose a little sugar cause you got to make that last but god know how to make me live but not enough in college you learn the art of not enough but you learn how to survive back in college see you see y'all nobody's young folk today i don't know how much money you get to go to college but back in my day you had to make twenty dollars last for almost a month you you make the 20 stretch praise god because you have to learn how to survive or not enough sometimes i've learned that my life is like an empty fridge but somehow god knows how to use not enough have you ever looked at your life opened up the fridge of your life and you didn't see enough but somehow god will use not enough and you'll give him all the glory and all the honor if you're here this morning and you have and this message somehow spoke to you i'm trying to speak to people i'm not trying to speak to folk who are perfect and you got it all together right now as we come out of 2020 and we heading to 2021 i'm trying to talk to folk who want to deal with the reality of where they are in their spirit sometimes i'm insecure i've learned that sometimes i feel inadequate man man and sometimes people hurt my heart and don't even realize they hurt my heart and then i try to fit in and and i try to i try to leave some of me in the car just so folk can accept me um i'm not enough and i've lived with insecurity listen stop now stop trying to fit in god didn't make you to fit in god didn't make you to try to fit every place uh so that you can be accepted god wants you to recognize the reality that you're imperfect but trust him to use not enough so if you're on virtue right now you need prayer i want you to come on i want you to come and get prayer i want you to let us know that you need prayer if you want to be baptized you're saying you know what uh brother hey when i'm not enough be baptized for the remission of my sins i don't i don't want to live in my inadequacy i know i'm inadequate i recognize that i'm imperfect i recognize that i'm not enough but i know god can use my not enough then you come on let's baptize you for the remission of your sins and let god use you for his honor and for his glory i want you to come right now jesus died was buried and resurrected if you believe that to be true repent of your sins confess christ be baptized for the remission of your sins and god will use you he'll take yo not enough and he'll give you victory with only 300 and he'll bless you and use you that you might impact the masses why don't you come right now as we sing the song of invitation yes lord yes lord from the bottom of my heart to the depths of my soul yes lord yes lord completely yes my soul my soul says yes i'll say yes lord yes to your will and to your way i'll say yes lord yes i will trust you and obey who when your spirit speaks to me with my whole heart i'll agree and my answer will be yes i really do i really do my soul my soul says yes i'll say yes i'll say yes lord yes to your will and i'll say yes lord yes i will trust you and obey who when your spirit speaks to me with my whole heart i'll agree and my answer will be as lord yes yes lord yes lord from the yes we want to thank dr orpheus j hayward once again for a great message not enough god can deal with it he can use us even with not enough we once again just thank him so much for that word and i know all of us have been blessed because of that word we want to remind you that the ten minutes following the conclusion of our service this morning we will have bible study classes we also want to remind you the number of individuals that have been found sick amongst our congregation we want to continue to pray for them sister kate hendricks was has been in the hospital want to pray for her we also want to pray for donna beasley she also stands in need of need of our our prayers audrey carter is doing much better we want to continue to pray for the carter family as well so there's a number of individuals we want to continue to pray for let's keep in mind now 2021 is a new year let us make preparation for a new year a fresh start a new beginning we've got god on our side and all will be well we want to also remind those who would be interested we have our upcoming marriage class january 26th you can register on the website at renaissance.com or marriage is made stronger we have limited space we have a great time a great experience with this marriage class please investigate sign up let us pray congressman father in heaven we're truly thankful again that we've heard your word preached in such a way that it's so simplistic that even the youngest child would know what they must do in order to be saved we thank you father for taking are not enough and and using us to be able to do all that you would have us to do with our faith and trust in you just lead god and direct our hearts and minds to continue to be about our father's business be with us we depart watch over his father keep us protected until the next appointed time for this we do ask in christ his holy and righteous name amen lord we've turned our backs on you far too many times the cost of sins too much to bear but still you paid the fine so i just don't wanna be another person in the crowd hear my prayer lord hear my battle cry i'm so thankful for this intercession with you i feel like i've entered into heaven when i'm in your presence when i'm in your and presence please bless this body of your saints with your family i pray for love and abundant peace for all my enemies and i know that satan's in there somewhere sitting in the crowd so hear my proud hear my battle cry when

Channel: Official Renaissance Church of Christ

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Length: 123min 4sec (7384 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 06 2020